# Cool and interesting animals



## Byrus (Sep 26, 2022)

I've been doing a lot of research into unusual animals for inspiration in creating alien species, and I've become really obsessed with uncovering the lifestyles of weird critters. If you have anything, please share!

General content warning: a lot of the stuff I'm obsessed with are bugs, so just a heads up. I'll just be posting links, not actual photos.

There's a beautiful species called the emerald jewel wasp that really lives up to its name. It parasitizes cockroaches by injecting them with venom, essentially turning the roach into a zombie that it lays its eggs on for its young to develop and eventually devour. However, something I see less discussed is the cockroach's defence response, which actually involves a karate kick explained here! Apparently it's like getting hit by a barbed baseball bat. It makes me wonder if that was what inspired Pheromosa.

The twitter account sinobug posts a lot of really interesting bugs with high quality photos. I really like the stinging nettle slug caterpillar, which is pretty much the definition of "do not touch". Also, it looks like an evil little jelly bean crawling about.

The luzon bleeding-heart dove, which doesn't do anything particularly weird, but looks super dramatic and I can appreciate that. Also known as the "stabbed pigeon"!


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## Kung Fu Ferret (Sep 26, 2022)

I find hyenas fascinating.  They're highly intelligent, on par with chimps in certain tests. Don't get me wrong,  I absolutely adore The Lion King,  but the hyenas deserved better.


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